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There are two headlines going into Summer 2025 anime, both numbers.

The first is 68. That’s how many new series (including ONA) are premiering in Summer. That’s, like, nuts. Summer and winter used to be the smaller anime seasons, and even though that distinction has softened in recent years, anything in the 60s is still massive for summer. For any season, but certainly summer (last year we had 52 and 2023 had 54). The proliferation of newer, smaller studios seems to be what’s allowing such things to be possible (that and outsourcing entire episodes overseas), but it still stretches the industry’s capacity to the breaking point. Fall ’24 had 67 and that’s the biggest season I can remember, but I don’t think summer has ever been close to this number.

The other headline is 27. That’s the number of series I’m previewing and that, too is a historically large number. Obviously part of that is sheer volume – even at my usual one-third hit rate I’d be at 22 (exactly where I was in fall). But 27 is somewhere around a personal record – it might even be one, though I haven’t checked. 22 is also the number I previewed in the last projected elite season, Spring 2023, but that was out of 52. Any time I cover this many shows in a preview there are going to be reaches, but it’s not a huge number. The majority of them are pretty legit.

So what does that tell us? No question, Summer 2025 looks more flush than I expected when I started researching the preview. I always felt the impact of a rotten several months of series announcements would be felt mainly in the tail end of 2025 and the start of 2026, but I won’t deny summer snuck up on me a little. I don’t see a Spring 2023 level of season here (never mind Spring 2012 or 2007) – too many of those 25 are mid-tier or pure hope. But there are enough sequels and pretty sure-fire adaptations to herald what should be a stronger than average season – and 11 series in Mid-tier is absolutely a big number.. And if one or two of the wild cards hits really big, we could be looking at a level up from that.

The strengths are, as noted, some really good manga adaptations like Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu and Gachiakuta, and a number of very solid sequels. As well, we have a bunch of seinen adaptations and even one or two originals (all told there are 12 seinen shows in the preview, maybe another record), and seinen always seems to have a higher batting average than any other demographic. Much of the speculative part of the preview is seinen-driven, which gives this season a pretty high variability factor. It’s not like there aren’t the usual ratios of LN adaptations, isekai (LN and otherwise), and CGDCT shows. It’s just that the schedule is so big that there are a decent amount of “others”.

I don’t see any glaringly obvious outliers in terms of genre trends here. Kind of the usual mix, though especially as summer tends to be the season for them I certainly would like to have had a couple of interesting sports series with potential (I’m not previewing a single one). There’s a decent smattering of romance/romcom though, along with a pretty standard sprinkling of fantasy and sci-fi.

This is my 57th (I think) Season Preview here at LiA. Thanks to everyone who’s joined me for part of that ride. Here’s hoping efforts to make the site financially sustainable bear fruit, and these previews will continue to be free for anyone who finds them useful and entertaining. As you know my costs continue to skyrocket – hosting alone is more than doubling this year – so more than ever I’m going to be dependent on your financial support to keep LiA alive. To everyone who’s pitched in to help that cause – you have my sincere gratitude.

 

Let’s move on to Summer 2025.  As usual, the poll is in the sidebar – please go vote!

 

Highest Expectations:

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun 2 Part 2 – Lerche: (PV) Gone, seemingly, are the days of waiting years between seasons of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun. At long last it’s being treated like the commercial powerhouse it is, at least for the moment.

If we keep up the G Fantasy leap-frogging between Black Butler and Hanako-kun, that would be even better. They’re both superb manga with a lot of demographic overlap (shounen of a very particular sort). On the whole I think this series is even better than Kuroshitsuji, and Part 1 of the second season lived up to that. It featured the longest arc in the series so far, and it’s going to be interesting to see where the series goes in Part 2. It could just keep following the manga chronologically, but there remains good material from the manga that was skipped in S1 and could be worked back into the narrative without necessitating huge changes.

Yofukashi no Uta Season 2 – LIDENFILMS: (PV) It’s a strong season for sequels, no question about it, and these first two are pretty well can’t-misses for me. I haven’t read the manga Yofakushi no Uta is based on, but I found the first season (#5 on my Best of 2022 list) to be a really smart and insightful take on what it means to be an outcast from “normal” society (as always, the vampires are metaphorical).

Above and beyond that, S1 was one of the coolest and most stylish anime we’ve seen for years. With a banging soundtrack from Creepy Nuts (the mangaka is a huge fan) used in almost Pillows-FLCL fashion and extremely arresting visuals, it was a standout production in every way. LIDENFILMS has emerged as one of the new giants in anime production, and while director Itamura Tomoyuki is a Shaft escapee, he’s channeled his talents in a largely positive direction since.

Just what the future holds for the Call of the Night anime adaptation is an interesting question. The first season covered roughly 46 chapters; the manga recently ended at 200. Obviously if this second season is it, we’re looking at something extremely rushed to wrap the story. The manga sold well but not spectacularly, and with no new volumes to promote we can’t be certain how incentivized the production committee is to give the series a full (almost surely four cour in total) treatment. Whatever we get I’ll take as I love Yofakushi, but it sure would be nice to get a full adaptation.

Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu – CygamesPictures: (PV) Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu is a series I’ve had my eye on since it premiered, and almost instantly became a huge buzz generator. Samu and I recently did a podcast episode about it, and with good reason. It’s an excellent series, if not without its flaws (mangaka Mokumokuren likely started it when they were still a teenager). It’s already a strong seller and has been a regular nominee in the awards circuit. In short, all signs point to yes.

Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu (part of this season’s seinen wave) has a huge twist, but as it happens in the first chapter I feel pretty safe talking about it – nevertheless you can skip down if you’d rather not know. It’s the story of a close friendship and maybe more between two teenage boys in a small village with a strange history. One of the boys is very much not who he seems to be, which his best friend is the first to notice. The world-building here is off the charts, and if you like that creepy rural Japan, Shinto-edged horror fantasy vibe, you’ll be in Heaven here. The characters are excellent too, not just the two leads but the supporting cast as well.

I was initially pretty tepid about CygamesPictures being the studio behind The Summer Hikaru Died, and the character designs didn’t click with me (too pretty). But the job they’ve done with Apocalypse Hotel has done a lot to convince me that they’re a studio with potential.  I would judge the staff, including director Takeshita Ryouhei, to have a relatively undistinguished track record. There are no alarm bells here but nothing really exceptional, either. If Hikaru were getting the adaptation Gachiakuta (see below) is, I’d say we’re looking at a solid AotY contender – it’s the better manga. As is I fully expect something really good, but it’s the production itself that will determine whether the anime is exceptional.

Gachiakuta – Bones: (PV) Gachiakuta looks to be this year’s Dandadan/Heavenly Delusion – a very good manga that’s lifted to new levels by a God-tier adaptation. Tengoku Daimakyou is certainly the best of those three series, but the other two are not slouches by any means.

Bones is in charge with Gachiakuta, and judging from the previews they’re really pulling out all the stops. This is another series I had pegged as a “next next big thing” from the opening chapters, and another that My Taste is Better Than Yours has covered (Samu even picked it as one of his “Next Big Thing” candidates). Managa sales have not exploded as much as many expected (including me), so it’s going to be very interesting to see if a sakuga-packed adaptation causes the series to really break out.

Gachiakuta is the story of a boy named Rudo who lives in a vaguely realistic dystopian future. He’s framed for the murder of his stepfather and cast down to the hellish landscape of garbage and “trash beasts” below. It’s another series with stellar world-building and a very interesting cast of characters, along with a serious cool factor and an art style somewhat reminiscent of Tite Kubo. It won’t surprise me in the slightest if Gachiakuta winds up the season’s biggest breakout hit.

 

Mid-table:

Dandadan 2nd Season – Trigger: (PV) Speaking of Dandadan, it’s back with the second of two split cours (with much more surely to follow). There are Gachiakuta parallels here for sure – shounen which generated a ton of buzz and good sales, which then got a flashy, big-budget adaptation. Dandadan did what Gachiakuta is hoping to do, seriously level up in sales thanks to the anime. It was a bigger seller than Gachiakuta to begin with, but it was the adaptation that turned it into a borderline kaijuu.

To be honest I’d kind of grown tired of the manga by the time the first season premiered, but experiencing Dandadan in anime form really breathed new life into the experience. It made some very smart decisions in the way it chose to translate the series’ unique aesthetic and manic energy to the screen. The material coming up is good enough the keep the momentum going – I think the writing gets pretty repetitive but it’ll be a while before the anime reaches the point where that’s really an issue for me.

Fermat no Ryouri – Domerica: (PV) Fermat no Ryouri is the “other” series from Ao Ashi mangaka Kobayashi Yuugo. That’s probably the main reason why this seinen got an adaptation, but you won’t hear me complaining. It’s the story of an aspiring mathematician named Gaku who crashes out of the academic fast track and winds up working at a cafeteria, where he meets a chef who introduces him to the relationship between mathematics and cooking. A very interesting premise that certainly doesn’t recall much of anything else we’ve seen lately.

Domerica is not a studio with much of a track record, but director Ichikawa Kazuya has quietly done some pretty solid work (like Romantic Killer, also Domerica). The manga only has five volumes at this stage but has already had a live-action drama, so it’s not as though it’s coming totally out of nowhere. I don’t know the manga but I like Ao Ashi an awful lot, so my expectations here are pretty high and I certainly think it’s a sleeper if it qualifies as such with Kobayashi’s involvement.

City The Animation – Kyoto Animation: (PV) When you consider what they went through, any new Kyoto Animation work is something that should be celebrated. Most of them don’t quite vibe with me – largely because they mostly produce shows based on generic light novels of a certain style which they own outright. That’s an essential part of their business model – a major reason why they mostly employ and train their own animators and produce high-quality series with reasonable work schedules. It is what it is.

There are exceptions, however. KyoAni has a relationship with Arawi Keiichi, having given his best-selling work Nichijou a fine treatment 14 years or so ago. Arawi has a unique style, to say the least, both as a humorist and an artist. His whimsy is unique, and while I love his art style the jokes themselves are a bit hit-and-miss (though Nichijou had maybe my all-time favorite manga sight gag). I actually find City funnier than Nichijou, and KyoAni looks to be delivering an adaptation even more faithful to Arawi’s aesthetic this time around. As such my expectations for spectacle are pretty high here, even if I know I’m not going to laugh at every chapter.

Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru Season 2 – CloverWorks: (PV) Another big 2022 series getting a sequel, and Sono Bisque Doll was certainly an even bigger hit than Yofakushi no Uta. I quite enjoyed S1 (it placed #13 on the year-end list), even if I’m not actually all that interested in the cosplay side of fandom. It was a beautifully drawn and directed show with a rather sweet main pairing.

I don’t read the manga but I know there are those who feel it kind of went adrift at some point. I don’t know if that would impact this season’s material (if indeed I would agree with the assessment at all) but there were elements even in Season 1 that kind of grated on me. This is a series with a pretty wide delta between its best and worst episodes, and that makes predicting how a second season will shake out a pretty hazardous exercise.

Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku – CloverWorks: (PV) The Fragrant Flowers Bloom With Dignity is kind of a mystery to me, and I don’t mean in terms of genre. I never remember hearing much about the manga, but it has shockingly high aggregator scores and seems quite popular. For whatever reason it’s escaped my attention, but with a CloverWorks adaptation on the way it definitely has it now.

One could hardly draw up a more classic romcon premise (even if it sounds more shoujo than shounen). A yankee-looking boy with a heart of gold and a girl from an exclusive school cross paths, and love blooms (with dignity?), but of course execution means everything in the romance genre. Director Kuroki Miyuki is an interesting talent, and CW tends to put together good adaptations more often than not these days. It’s a cipher for me but I’m going into Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku willing to be impressed.

Osomatsu-san 4th Season – Pierrot Films: (PV) I’d kind of thought that the third season of Osomatsu-san had an elegiac quality to it. Or at least reflective. As silly as it is this series does have a depressing side to be sure, and it felt like it ended on a pretty inward-looking note. But commercial reality is what it is, and there’s still money to be made off the franchise so here we are, almost five years later.

Director Odaka Yoshinori did various cats and dogs work on the first two seasons, but steps into the big chair for the first time. With Osomatsu-san (and any original, this will be on the test) the writer is the most important person though, and Matsubara Shuu is back in the saddle there. Can he still find interesting – and funny – stuff to say in this now-iconic comic universe? We’re about to find out.

Ame to Kimi to – Lespirit: (PV) Another one of the seinen manga brigade that provides the pool of variability at the heart of this season. This time around it’s the story of a woman who finds an animal by the roadside in the rain, and decides to take it in after it offers her an umbrella. The synopsis describes it as “dog-like” but it looks like a fat tanuki to me.

Ame to Kimi to is another manga I know nothing about. Again, though, it seems to be pretty well-regarded. This is a shot in the dark but it slots in just above the “Modestly Interested” pool for me, maybe with the tiniest of sleeper vibes.

Muchuu sa, Kimi ni. – Doga Kobo: (PV) Muchuu sa, Kimi ni. is an interesting prospect to be sure. Wayama Yama’s manga (yes, it’s seinen) won the Tezuka Cultural Prize for short works in 2020, and was nominated for a Manga Taisho. She’s a hot name for sure, and has two series being adapted this season (Karaoke Iko! is the other).

Muchuu sa, Kimi ni. is a collection of short stories about oddball teenagers who don’t fit in. It’s only one volume, so it seems as if and Karaoke Iko! (also one volume) are being adapted in a single cour. Director Nakatani Asami is helming both stories, and seems to be a rookie in the role. I might have expected an experienced auteur director in charge here, so it’ll be interesting to see how this works out.

Karaoke Iko! – Doga Kobo: (PV) See above. Karaoke Iko! was nominated for a Taisho too, finishing third in 2021. This time around it’s the story of a middle school choir star who gets roped into helping a yakuza improve at karaoke so he doesn’t lose a contest and have to get a tattoo applied by the boss. Maybe the more popular of the two manga being adapted, this one already had a live-action adaptation in 2024. Between the two of them one certainly hopes this Wayama cour lives up to the buzz.

Takopii no Genzai – Enishiya: (PV) There’s no mangaka quite like Taizan 5. I really liked his The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins, but like everything he writes it totally burned itself out in hyperspeed fashion (after looking like a potential hit). Nobody packs as much drama into so few pages as Taizan 5. It’s always an intense experience.

The series that really imprinted Taizan on fandom consciousness was Takopii’s Original Sin. It likewise started out like a house on fire and flamed out in 2 volumes and 16 chapters. Now it’s getting a 6-episode ONA (premiering June 28th so technically the spring season, but I won’t quibble). It follows a kindly alien who befriends an unhappy bullied girl. I haven’t read this one but I can pretty much imagine how it goes – prepare for histrionics aplenty.

Busu ni Hanataba wo. – SILVER LINK: (PV) A pretty well-regarded seinen manga I know nothing about? Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Busu ni Hanataba wo. even has romance elements, too. No question as I put the preview together that’s the recurrent theme of the season. And it’s how that big block of seinen wild cards fare that will ultimately determine how good a season Summer 2025 turns out to be.

This time around it’s a high school romance between the school idol and an “ugly” girl – though that seems mostly to come down to fat shaming, as far as I can tell. This is another one that just sneaks into the Mid-table, based on its seinen roots and a pretty good staff along with generally positive ratings.

 

Modestly Interested:

Futari Solo Camp – SynergySP: (PV): This category is so massive this season that I’m going to have to be pretty brief about most of these series. Futari Solo Camp (yet another seinen) is the tale of a solo camper who winds up mentoring a novice outdoorswoman in the ways of the wild. The manga caught my eye years ago with its interesting covers.

Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen – Staple Entertainment: (PV)  What do you know, a seinen manga adaptation. This time about a kid who winds up the overprotective caretaker of his younger sister after their parents’ passing, and his reunion with a former tormentor in high school. Red flags galore but the manga has a decent reputation.

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Haikara! – Studio Deen: (PV) No one ever seems to talk about Binan Koukou but it must be more popular than it seems, because they keep making more of it. It tends to be a pretty fun series in an unassuming and cheeky sort of way.

Dekin no Mogura – Brain’s Base: (PV) Hard as is it to believe, Dekin no Mogura is a seinen manga adaptation. And it’s by Eguchi Natsumi, creator of the massively successful (and deservedly so) Hoozuki no Reitetsu. Maybe I should have this ranked higher based just on that, but FWIW the manga (which is untranslated either officially or unofficially) doesn’t seem to have generated much buzz. Some upside potential her for sure, though.

Mattaku Saikin no Tantei to Kitara – LIDENFILMS: (PV) A cookie if you can guess what demographic this manga is… This one is the story of a 35 year-old private detective and his high school girl assistant. From the ever-busy LIDENFILMS, the manga Mattaku Saikin no Tantei no Kitara is another pretty well-reviewed one and it’s the same mangaka as Senryuu Shoujo, which I quite liked in anime form.

Onmyou Kaiten Re:Birth – David Production: (PV) This one is about as wild as cards get. It’s an original fantasy about a delinquent who time leaps to the past and future and teams up with Abeno Seimei to save the world (or something). David Production can be interesting, and writer Mori Hayashi (I’ve always assumed that has to be a nom de plume) has done some decent work.

Nyaight of the Living Cat – OLM: (PV) Wah, an actual shounen. Nyaight of the Living Cat is a sort of zombie apocalypse with cats, where a virus has turned most of humanity into felines. The problem: it’s transmitted through cuddles, and the protagonist is a nekozuki who can’t resist the urge (I feel you, bruh). Some comic potential here. Of note is that this show is directed by well-known Japanese director/producer/screenwriter Miike Takashi (who has dabbled a bit in anime before)

Tougen Anki – Studio Hibari: (PV) Relative popular fantasy manga about feuding oni and momotarou descendants, and a rebellious oni teen. I don’t know much about it but it sells decently for what that’s worth.

Hotel Inhumans – Bridge: (PV) Three shounens in a row. This time it’s a manga adaptation about a hotel which specializes in renting to professional hitmen. Almost 70 year-old director Amino Tetsurou has certainly done some good work (including the excellent Shiki), and while Hotel Inhumans is largely untranslated, I have heard whispers than the manga is somewhat interesting.

Jigoku Sensei Nube (2025) – Studio Kai: (PV) Make that four. As we know reboots/adaptations of unlikely chestnuts from long ago are all the rage these days, and Jigoku Sensei Nube certainly qualifies. It’s a Jump manga that ended 26 years ago, with a couple of anime already hitting in the 90’s. It doesn’t seem likely you’d bother unless you were going to adapt the whole thing this time, and the whole thing is 31 volumes so my initial take is amazement that someone decided to pay for it. I’ve never read it but the plot is basically psychic teacher (maybe with possessed left hand) in a school where the kids are being tormented by the paranormal.

Mikadono Sanshimai wa Angai, Choroi – P.A. Works: (PV) My default level of interest in PAW is nowhere close to what it was several years back, but I’m still marginally more inclined to give their stuff a shot than a generic studio. For most of their history P.A. Works had never done a manga adaptation but that’s now SOP for them, pretty much. This one is about the son of a famous actress working to support his three more-talented stepsisters. It’s notable that the season’s shounen are mostly congregating at the base of the pyramid and TBH that premise sounds kind of dumb, but the manga is supposedly not awful.

Cat’s♥Eye – LIDENFILMS: (PV) Another odd reboot here, an ONA take on an even older (1981-1985) shounen manga (that’s six in a row) from WSJ. It also got a contemporaneous TV anime which I assume was more or less complete (73 episodes for 18 volumes) but hey, if someone wants to write the check… Three sisters run the titular cafe but their main gig is stealing art treasures that belonged to their missing father, hoping he’ll contact them.

 

Will definitely blog: Jikabu Shounen Hanako-kun, Yofakushi no Uta, Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu, Gachiakauta, Dandadan, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru. Six is not an enormous number when I’m previewing 26 series, but it’s almost a lock that at least a couple of that massive seinen pool will prove undroppable, and stuff like Osomatsu-san seems likely to be a factor.

Sleepers: Fermat no Ryouri, the two Yama Wayama shows (if they count). Maybe Ame to Kimi to, Futari Solo Camp, maybe even Mattaku Saikin no Tantei to Kitara or Hotel Inhumans.

 

OVA:

After a rare three-season run of previewing at least one OVA, there isn’t even one officially listed on the schedule as far as I can tell.

Theatrical:

After a total whiff in spring there are several theatrical releases in summer (traditionally the biggest season for anime movies) that at least merit a look.

Tooi-san wa Seishun Shitai! Baka to Smartphone to Romance to – 08/15/2025: (PV) Some sort of comedy about a high school romance club. Not much to go on here but director Mankyuu has some good stuff on his resume.

ChaO – 03/14/2025: (PV) Fantasy/sci-fi human-mermaid romcom. For some reason I suspect it might be pretty good.

Fushigi no Kuni de Alice to: Dive in Wonderland – 08/29/2025: (PV) P.A. Works again. This appears to be some sort of reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, with Shinohara Toshiya directing a script by Kakihara Yuuko. That’s an excellent top line pedigree and makes Fushigi no Kuni de Alice to: Dive in Wonderland worth a look.

Hyakemu. – 09/19/2025: (PV) Manga adaptation about two friends/rivals at the 100 meter dash. Mainly here because the manga is by Uoto (Chi Chikyuu), and written when they were very young indeed.

Chainsaw Man Movie: Reze-hen – 09/19/2025: (PV) Another bite of the anime apple for Chainsaw Man. Manga fans mostly savaged director Nakayama Ryuu for his treatment of the first season (which I get, though I thought it was excessive). This time around they get Yoshihara Tetsuya in that unenviable job, and one presumes he’s going to hew closer to Fujimoto’s visual aesthetic than Nakayama did because otherwise, why bother switching.